Corporate Governance

The dropoff in rulemaking and enforcement activity has allowed financial executives and compliance professionals to breathe a bit easier with regard to those topics, but anxiety still remains high, according to the Wolters Kluwer 2018 U.S. Regulatory and Risk Management Indicator Survey.

Wolters Kluwer Senior Regulatory Strategy Advisor Timothy Burniston told Dodd Frank Update concerns over compliance challenges and risks remain high in an industry where uncertainty has become the new normal.

Dive deep into the results to learn what they reveal about current industry sentiments.

A company’s failure to improve its anti-fraud and anti-money laundering (AML) program in accordance with a 2012 deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) led to a $125 million penalty ordered by the Department of Justice.

The company also agreed to pay the same sum to settle similar contempt allegations filed in 2009 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Bringing together professionals from all spokes of the real estate industry in one location always has been the focus of the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3).

For the 2018 installment, keynote speaker Alessandro DiNello, president and CEO of Flagstar Bank, brought to the podium the perspective of an industry leader who has worn a number of different hats throughout his career.

From a regulatory perspective to technology and all points in between, find out how DiNello and his company successfully navigated a gauntlet of obstacles and are now thriving.

In light of the recent $1 billion fine Wells Fargo has agreed to pay to settle federal consent orders, Moody’s released a report detailing how the penalty will affect the bank’s profits.

The company’s first-quarter earnings will be reduced by several million dollars as a result of the consent orders for actions federal regulators deemed to be “unfair” pertaining to certain customers who applied for mortgage interest-rate-lock extensions and those who were charged for force-placed collateral insurance on their auto loans.

Citing the company’s multiple violations of consumer protection laws, the Federal Reserve Board recently announced that it would restrict Wells Fargo’s growth until it can sufficiently improve its corporate governance and risk management processes.

The Fed also ordered Wells Fargo to replace three of its board members by April and a fourth by the end of the year.

Find out what the sanctions against the company entail, as well as what reactions they have elicited from the company and the industry.

The House’s recent passage of H.R. 3312, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act, has drawn support from some in the financial industry who long have championed rethinking the process for designating institutions as systemically-important.

The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support, goes a step further than the Senate’s regulatory relief plan, which also proposes to amend the process.

Learn more about what the legislation proposes to do and what the industry and members of Congress have to say.

After receiving two unrelated orders for information from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a financial company used the latter of the two as evidence to a support its contention that the bureau was subjecting the company to undue burden, which it argued upon receiving the first order.

The company petitioned to have the CID set aside or modified, then cited a second CFPB information inquiry it received to support its position.

Find out details about the company’s argument and the bureau’s response.

Wells Fargo has fired the senior executive vice president of its Consumer Lending division, Franklin Codel for unspecified actions that the company deemed in violation of its policies and expectations of its senior leaders.

The company has announced interim plans for its Consumer Lending business lines until Codel’s successor is named.

Find out more details about the company’s decision and its plans for the future.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently issued a revised policies and procedures manual regarding its approach to licensing applications from banks that have non-satisfactory Community Reinvestment Act ratings.

The revisions allow applicants to document how certain acquisitions, branch relocations and other actions would “help the bank to achieve its CRA objectives,” as well as other factors the OCC will take into consideration when issuing CRA ratings.

In an effort to reduce data reporting burdens for financial institutions, the three banking regulators comprising the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council have proposed Call Report revisions intended to streamline the process.

The Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently published a notice of proposed rulemaking, detailing their plan to remove or consolidate numerous data items and add new or raise certain existing reporting thresholds.

Find out more about how the latest proposed revisions could affect various institutions.

The Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have issued information on the host state loan-to-deposit ratios, which are used to determine compliance under Section 109 of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994. Review the ratios in Dodd Frank Update’s Library.